Expand your search before you make your decision. There are lots of dishwashers that let you wash only a half load. In other words, you don't need the drawers in order to wash small loads more frequently and avoid your paper plates/handwashing scenario.

Forgive me if I'm stating the obvious, but if your current dishwasher is old and/or lower end, like ours was before it broke, maybe you haven't noticed that mid to high-end dishwashers have two spray arms--one under each basket--instead of just the single spray arm below the bottom basket. I didn't know that until our broken DW propelled us into appliance stores. We ended up with an Asko, and it's great. Several Asko models, and Bosch models, and Miele models, let you fill just one basket and wash just that half-load, using the spray arm under that basket. I'm sure other brands have this feature too.

And I mention it because I've heard some complaints about the reliability or repair prone-ness of the FP DW drawers. I don't know much about that, because I never seriously looked into the drawers, but I have heard it... so just be aware that you can get that same functionality (i.e., the ability to wash half-loads) from a normal dishwasher, if you look at the mid- to high-end models of mid- to high-end brands.

To follow up on ideagirl2's comment...new DWers come with "economy" mode for quick, partial or lightly soiled loads. Or, you can choose to do a "rinse and hold" where the 12 dirty dishes you place in the DW are quickly rinsed but not washed (so they won't start smelling foul two days later while you are waiting to accumulate a full load).

macybaby writes: "DH hates running a partially empty DW. Since it's just us two, it can take a few days before it's full enough, and by then we've run out of flatware and plates. DH resorts to paper/plastic, I'll pull out dirty dishes and wash them."

I can address that. I was raised by a mother who regarded waste as two degrees higher evil than murder, and the thought of wasting all that hot water for a partial load gave me agony.

Then a couple years ago, the U-shaped portion of the trap below our kitchen sink rusted through, and we had three or four days with a missing trap section until we could get the plumber in. In the meantime, however, we really had to, had to, do a load of dishes in our (Miele) dishwasher. So I put a bucket under the pipe where the trap would have been and started the dishwasher, prepared to shove in another bucket in case the first one filled up and something was needed to catch the draining water before I could get to the toilet and back to empty the first one.

We never filled the first bucket; it did not fill even half way. The entire cycle used and drained less water than I used to use in a shallow pan inside the sink to wash dishes by hand. (And then, I used to use more running hot water to rinse the dishes.) Modern dishwashers are amazingly thrifty in their use of hot water.

Sit down with your husband and discuss the topic of waste -- the quantity of resources to make a paper plate or a plastic fork, and the amount of hot water you will be using to wash the few dirty items by hand that you have retrieved from the dishwasher while he is refusing to let you do a whole load. I bet he'll come around.

ideagirl, our current DW is only about 6 years old. We are getting rid of it because DH can't figure out how to make it stop screeching when he opens and closes the door. He's very mechanically inclined and has tried all sorts of things short of disassembly.

His big gripe about running it not full is Electricity use. This is a guy who will follow someone around the house turning off lights. So it's more of a pet peeve for him, but then he'll go out in the shop and run his power tools and then we see some big electricity bills!

During 4 -5 months of the year DH is home full time (rest of the year he is usually working out of town) and during that time he does almost all of the household chores. So its not that he won't let me run the DW, it's that he does not run it and I end up with no place to put dirty dishes except in the sink until the machine is run and unloaded.

What I like most about the two drawers is I imagine I'd always have a DW to be putting dirty dishes into. DH teased me about that - he said during the summer when I was by myself, I'd probably never put the dishes away. I'd take clean ones out of the one drawer, use them and put them in the second until it was full and then run it, and then start over. I expect if I had two drawers, they would see about equal use as I would be rotating between them all the time.

As to brands, DH is very particular and right now he hates Whirlpool Corp and we also don't want to get something that we can't get locally. Unfortunately that takes Miele and Asko out of the picture. No one within 300 miles sells them.

DH hates running a partially empty DW. Since it's just us two, it can take a few days before it's full enough, and by then we've run out of flatware and plates. DH resorts to paper/plastic, I'll pull out dirty dishes and wash them.
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Macy, mind if I tag along? I'm thinking about getting the two drawer DW for the exact same reasons you are.

We had the same problem with running out of dishes and flatware. I sat down one day and figured out how short we were, and just bought more dishes and flatware. Now it's timed just about right.

Corrie

Get it.
It gives you two separate compartments, and drawers too.
He can have fun disassembling it, which is easy to do.

I've had a DD603 for 7 years. No specific trouble with it. A couple minor incidents. Leaking once on the upper drawer when I paused the cycle to add an item and apparently another item on one of the side shelves shifted and blocked the lid from fully sealing. No water got on the floor, I could tell something was wrong by the different sound (circulation pump getting starved for water as it gradually leaked out). Paused the cycle to check, the lid sealed upon restarting. Upon investigating fully later, didn't find anything broken or wrong with the lid. Water had collected on top of the lower lid and some spilled to a small puddle in bottom of the unit's cabinet (not enough to trigger the flood sensor). Several weeks ago the upper lid didn't fully raise up at end of the cycle, causing it to drag on the drawer. Again, starting and canceling a cycle to lower & raise the lid again corrected the situation.

My unit is not a Tall, but to be sure either way there isn't as much vertical space in the drawers compared to a traditional machine in which tall items (platters & cookie sheets) can be place alongside a lower rack and extend up beside an upper rack ... or the upper rack can be removed for other tall or bulky items. However, the DD's plate tines and MegaRack (for glasses) and flatware basket can be removed to allow a wide-open rack with as much vertical space as is possible. Some large flat pieces can be placed at an angle depending how they fit among other items in the load.

The Tall units now have more flexible racking, with foldable tines and the side shelves are height-adjustable.

Note that DishDrawers have onboard water heating and CAN be used on a cold water connection. My unit is on a hot water supply, but it's essentially tap-cold due to the water heater distance and the machine's low fill level (~0.8 gals per fill, the latest models may be slightly less). Each cycle selection has specific target temps for the main wash and final rinse. There is no time limit on heating, cycle time IS extended as necessary to always reach the target temperature, although I have not generally found it to be much longer than the initial estimate.

Regards to rotating clean/dirty dishes between the two drawers, yes that's a fairly common usage pattern.

running a half load of dishes in a DW usually uses less water than if you do them by hand in the sink - especially with euro models.

many DW's have load sensors or upper rack wash only settings that adjust the amount of water you'd use for a smaller load.

most people find the DD a love or hate affair. If you like the loading aspect it'll be fine , if not it'll be teh worst 1000 bucks you've ever spent.

I'm not sure how to help with the marital discord, but I can vouch for the F&P tall dishdrawers. I have had mine for about 9 months now and I love being able to run separate loads. I actually have a tall double and a tall single. The bottom of the double I use for glassware and run it on delicate.

I've had the F&P diswhashwer drawers for about five years now, and they've never given me a bit of trouble.

When the top one seemed to be losing cleaning efficiency last month, I took the racks out and investigated the filter (took about 15 seconds). I decided that the pieces of what was once a white wine glass weren't helping water flow. Removed those, and it's working like a champ again.

I know some people here have had trouble with them, but mine have been great.

Putting a Miele Diamante Plus in our new home, though. :-)

We've had our F&P for about five years now. We had a sensor go bad when it was still under warranty but no issues since then.

We have a family of five so it gets filled a lot more quickly than yours would but we love being able to run one while the other is only partially filled.

It would hold a fairly large pot but I can't vouch for its ability to clean one as we wash our non-stick pots by hand (the dishwasher detergent would ruin the coating).

The drawers sound like a perfect solution, but put it before DH: there's an alternative in the half-load-enabled DWs mentioned. You can address the discord by tossing the problem back in his court. It sounds as if you'll get what you need either way.

...whooops, posted too soon: And if you let him decide, you'll both come out ahead in the marital-discord-department too.

Last night DH told me to get what I want. He really does not care all that much, but realized near the start of this project that the kitchen means way more to me than it does to him. He's got a few rooms in the house that are "his" which is why we have a cedar lined bathroom in an old farmhouse. He loves that bathroom and I keep the door shut.

DH does do a lot of cooking, and for many years he felt that anything that works in the kitchen is good enough. Though you should see his eyes get big if I say a Remington is as good as a Winchester.

He has admitted that all of the "different" things I've wanted and fought for in the kitchen (induction, wall ovens, soapstone, white cabinets, apron front sink) have turned out to be things he really likes. He simply has no imagination when it comes to something he's not use to.

BTW- when it comes to Vehicles/equipment, he has the final say in what we get - I won't buy something that he refuses to work on.

hey macybaby, I know you were over on the other discussion on Kitchen Forum the other day. Since you currently have your d/w on a platform so you don't have to bend down too far, you should remember that the bottom drawer on the double is waaay down there, on the floor, essentially. Despite that, you know I love mine.

With that being said, can you work in 2 single drawers that are intstalled on each side of the sink? Or is it too late for that?

The bottom drawer is low, and I only use it when there is a big dinner party, or at least every week when I run the baffles from the vent hood.

I know a few years ago, there were some issues with the drawers. BUT, if you go with a F&P brand, they are the originals and have been working on and solving all their issues for some time. Knock on wood, no issues with ours, it's been almost a year now so far.

It's really great, I would not hesitate to buy another one.

I was just thinking about that low door issue last night. I had the DW open and was looking at it. The one thing I like the most about having the DW raised is I don't have to bend down near as far to shut the door. The loading and unloading was never a big deal.

The number one reason we raised up the DW was to make installation easier. Only the rails sit on a raised portion, the rest is open to the floor so there is lots and lots of room to deal with connections and make sure the water lines aren't kinked or that sort of thing. Normally tightening up a fitting involves some interesting contortions and getting "up close and personal" with the dishwasher.

I thought long and hard about two dishwashers before we finalized the cabinet plans, but the only other place caused some serious blockage problems when the DW was open. My husband is not good at watching where he is going, and walks into things all the time. He has walked into the open DW door many times because it's down low and he just does not see it unless I also have the top rack pulled out.

Last night I had the DW open and he was moving around the kithcen. I pointed out to him how nice it would be to have a drawer you can just give a push to and get it out of your way without having to bend down and fully close the DW to get the door out of your way. That is when he said "Fine, get what you want". When I write that out, it sounds like he was being passive/agressive about it, but he honeslty meant he's fine with me getting what I think will make me happy becuase when it comes down to it, he does not care as long as he has something that does not screech when he opens and closes the door.

That is the only reason we are replacing the DW - because he hates that noise LOL!! I'm taking the opportinity to get something I think I'll like so much better.

Miele's door spring is adjustable. Make it neutral and it stops wherever you leave it- you can flick the door up with your foot. Capacity is more than some other and most other older brands. This means you need more of the components you use most often. You can stock up things and almost always work supply problems out pretty easily. Our D Plus runs about twice a week with everything much shinier than our old unit.